Hi all,
Does anyone have any suggestions of a suitable linux distribution to run on top of VMware? I'm familiar with a few of the popular distributions but I've absolutely no experience with VMware iteslf.

The server will be running a small website with a mySQL server but reliability is absolutely essential hence the VMware thing. My boss has several virtual machines from Stratogen (vmware hosting provider) so I can spec up the machine myself. I'm thinking of 2GB ram and a single CPU.

My initial thought it to go with CentOS as I know this best but any other recommendations would be welcome. If you need details about the VMware server then the product we've got is VMware hosting

I'm also interested to learn how easy it is to upload a virtual machine to one of these providers? If anyone has been through this process before then please let me know!

Many thanks for your help,

Dean.

I have yet to encounter a Linux distro that wouldn't run in VMware, though I have encountered issues with one recent distro involving the mouse and keyboard and involving Xorg...neither of which would affect you if you are running a webserver.

I'm writing this post in OpenSUSE 11.3 64 bit which is running as a VM in Workstation 7.1.4 with a Mandriva 2010.1 32 bit host. This is the distro that has had the problems; I have them about 95% worked out but I did have to work them out. I have another OpenSUSE 11.3 64 bit up and running right now on the same workstation, and I am hacking it into a satcom router development environment, and it is working OK too.

I would say pick the distro that would do your job. CentOS is a good choice if stability is your criterion, and for a webserver that should be fine.

As for uploading the whole VM...no problem at all. Just zip or tar the whole thing into one file, and upload it. Your provider might have a preferred format; check with them. When they install it in place and try to start it, VMware will question them whether this is a copy or a machine that has been moved. When they answer appropriately ("moved", I would think) VMware will handle the details and start the machine. And it will start and you should have no issues unless you have some gross difference in hardware between the development platform and the deployment platform.

Hi Dean,

You can use RHEL / CentOS (5 & above)& Ubuntu (9 & above), for VMware. You will never face any problem regarding any of your drivers.

Also if possible Run Guest OS on Runlevel 3 if you have multiple VM's of it. So that you get good performance in VMware.
Second also make sure in VM's you install VMware-Tools to get maximum performance.

Please let me know on which VMware product you are working ?

Regard's
Ashish